Life Updates: August 9, 2021

Hey Everyone, I figured it has been a couple of weeks since my last update. So, why not put another out there. A few of my goals are seeing improvement and I have been knocked on my butt with illness. I will talk about it all in this Life Update.

Employment

Right now, I am in pursuit of my growing my own business. My company has been growing for a few years now, and just recently decided to quit my job and go full-time. In the beginning, we did all kinds of services such as compliance, monitoring, incident response, and pen testing. As of this year, we are down to just two services, and next year we will be down to our "One Thing." That singular focus is pen testing small to mid-sized businesses. 

A big lesson I followed in my personal life for years is to narrow my focus. Unfortunately, I didn't apply that same philosophy to my business. At the time, my reasoning was if we could offer more services, we could bring in more revenue. The reality was that I couldn't develop all of those services into something my customers deserved. 

Since narrowing my focus, we have improved our business development strategy and our business processes substantially. Honestly, that came from a mix of narrowing my focus and having more time to focus.

I am happy to report that the business is growing faster than ever. Who would have thought simplicity would bring more revenue? But hindsight is 20/20.

Education

In the last update, I spoke about how I have been focusing on the CASP+ and planned to move on to the CISSP. I have been putting tons of hours into studying. I went through Sybex's book, signed up for Cybrary (not worth it), and bought another book, All-In-One Exam Guide. 

I will get into this more when I write my review, but I needed more practice answering questions asked in different ways. And I need help with some labs. Turns out the labs in Cybrary were a waste of time and money. The new book seems to be a good addition, though. My goal is to take the exam in two weeks. Please hold me to this, lol. I am beyond ready to move on to my next project.

Speaking of, I decided that I didn't want to take the CISSP. My reasoning was, if my focus is pen testing, then I need to be a better hacker. So after this exam, I will be hacking again. The CISSP would be a great addition to my resume if I went the management route, but I am staying technical. My life is better served by learning more technical things.

At some point, I may go back, but I will just hack the rest of this year.

Travel

So I have been slacking on travel blogs. Honestly, I have only gone a couple of places this year. I was hoping to go to Def Con but decided against it because I want the whole experience. It's just not worth the cash for me at the moment.

I do, however, have 4 trips coming up and probably a 5th. Expect some blogs on Tampa, Utah, Carolina Pines, and the Smokey Mountains later this year.

Health and Fitness

My training for the marathon is going strong. I do a total of about 6 hours of cardio every week in the gym because it's hot AF outside. I did, however, go out on an hour-long run last week, and my body felt good. I was able to keep about a 10-minute mile pace up until the last 15 minutes, when I started to overheat. It turns out my path I run, even though after 7PM, was in direct sunlight almost the whole time. Next time, I will opt for a morning run.

Regardless, my running time improved drastically over that hour. Now to just get that 10-minute mile to the 2-hour mark. If I can run a marathon at that pace, I would come in at about 4 hours, which would make me beyond happy.

Currently, I am sick with some virus other than COVID, but I should be resuming training at some point this week. The doctor told me to take it easy, so I have mostly just been studying over the weekend. No gym. No running. No yoga. 

Conclusion

Thanks for reading my post. It feels good to write things down to keep me motivated and grounded. Hopefully, sharing some of my life's story will benefit you as well. Let me know what you think, send me tips, and let me know what I can do better here at TheCU.

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